


Seeing Double

by unorigelnal (jayburding)



Series: The One Where Loki's Asshole Tendencies are Genetic [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-02
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-27 22:34:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2709170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayburding/pseuds/unorigelnal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a little too much Loki to go around, and Tony gets on the wrong side of an angry mother for the sake of a phone call.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing Double

Facial recognition pinpoints Loki in Stuttgart. Fifteen minutes later, scanning locates him again on an anonymous residential street in Arlington, Virginia. Tony, intending to gatecrash the welcome party headed for Germany, makes an about face at Mach 2 over the Atlantic and heads straight back, dropping speed to spare windows once he hits the mainland and still beating the SHIELD team to the target.

Loki is caught baffled outside a 7-11, holding a grocery bag. A shaggy bear of a dog whines and barks where it’s tied to a bike rack by the door as Tony levels his repulsors at the Asgardian who stole a potentially devastating magical power source and then nipped down to the store for coffee. Armour and leather are long gone in favour of a hoodie and jeans, which don’t exactly scream supervillain. It’s all very strange.

"What sort of evil plan starts with grand larceny then goes immediately to petty theft?"

"What is this about?" Loki asks with a slight lisp, his accent a blur that’s not quite Midwestern. His green eyes never shift from the glow of the repulsor, every line of him tight as piano wire beneath his baggy clothes, a slight tremble becoming apparent in his hands.

He’s afraid.

He’s  _afraid_?

Loki sets the bag down slowly while Tony ponders that revelation and raises his hands over his head as he rises. His eyes flicker away from Tony’s gauntlet as the quinjet finally arrives and over loudspeaker an agent he doesn’t recognise demands that Loki stand down. The noise of the jet sets the dog into a frenzy, howling away. No one comes to claim it, all still hiding away in the store. Safer really.

"Loki?" the guy mutters to himself, glancing between Tony and the jet as if weighing up which is worse. "What has he done?"

"Congratulations, talking about yourself in the third person officially makes you a villainous trope," Tony says, stepping forward to catch Loki’s raised hands and pull them behind his back. He doesn’t resist. "You’re not off to a great start."

"Do I get a phonecall?" Loki asks as if he didn’t hear. "My mom’s gonna be mad when I’m late."

This is getting weirder by the minute.

"I’m sure we can arrange something."

He comes willingly enough, though the quinjet’s frame groans and a little used dial registers they're on the edge of their sizeable weight limit. Asgardians are obviously far heavier than Tony thought: thank god he didn’t try to carry the guy himself. That damned dog is still wailing away as the doors close.

An hour later, with Loki secured, they get a call from Natasha claiming exactly the same thing. Forty minutes, and the Stuttgart team are coming home with an additional Asgardian aboard, courtesy of some crossed wires and a massive lightning storm. Loki is simultaneously on the Helicarrier and on a quinjet over the Atlantic, and neither seem to realise. Answers have to wait until they’re both in the same place.

As it turns out, answers come looking for them. With the quinjet still a way out, the Helicarrier registers an unexpected visitor. Tony is suddenly reminded that Loki never got his phonecall as an armoured Asgardian lays waste to SHIELD personnel, and god he hopes they haven’t acquired yet another Loki, though the coiled horns of the helm and the wicked polearm don’t instil him with confidence. He runs for the armour, but the Asgardian’s already in the lower levels by the time he catches up. Repulsors are definitely out, but the threat might be enough.

"Back off Dragonborn or I’ll put holes in you to match the hull."

They don’t even pause, lunging at him with a weapon they have no right to be able to wield that well in such a small space, and Tony is forced to fall back, cursing as the glaive blade catches his arm and shears off a sliver of the metal. Holy shit, that thing is sharp. 

"Where is my son?" she snarls, and he realises he’s facing a woman who’s two seconds away from skewering him.

"Well he did warn me," Tony says to himself, which JARVIS automatically mutes for his touchy observer. Somehow she hears him regardless, and she bolts forward again, hitting his chestplate with her open hand before he’s even aware that she’s moved.

"Where is my son?" she asks again softly. Under her hand, for a split second, the arc reactor flickers.

Tony chokes.


End file.
